What constitutes a 'repair' in the study of natural conversation?
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Correct answer: Fixing trouble in speaking, hearing, or understanding by adjusting the utterance
Repairs are interactional moves used to fix hitches or misunderstandings in real-time talk. They are classified into self-initiated self-repairs (the speaker catches and fixes their own mistake, e.g., 'I saw him on Tuesday—no, Wednesday') and other-initiated repairs (the listener flags a problem). Studying repair mechanisms reveals how deeply invested conversationalists are in maintaining shared understanding.
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